Civil War Reed Richards and Tony Stark have plenty of other brilliant foolproof contingency plans like Clor [hilarious Sporadic Sequential]

Marvel and Microsoft line up Cryptic Studios for Marvel Universe MMO for both Xbox 360 and Windows Vista! [Newsarama] [Comic Book Resources]
Cryptic is City of Heroes with NCSoft, which is good news because they know how to do it well already- but they were also the target of Marvel's litigation against the game, so color Neilalien surprised.

None of the characters in Civil War #4 are remotely recognizable or likable. And Memo to Marvel: Never, ever, do a story involving a clone again! MARVEL COMICS AND CLONES DO NOT MIX! And heck, the unstable clone didn't work out so well against our friends- let's try outsourcing to some Hannibal Lechters! Neilalien revokes his earlier frustration that Dr. Strange isn't involved in this! Bullet dodged! The art's good though.

Braindump: Dr. Strange vs. Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider #3

A terrible Doctor Strange appearance.

(1) Dr. Strange has no interesting offense. Doc's offense in this issue is two energy blasts, one from a pointy finger, and then calling a lightning bolt. So boring. When a lug like Ghost Rider is shown with a more varied arsenal (brawling, chains, fire) than a Master of the Mystic Arts, it's bad.

(2) Dr. Strange has no defense. Granted, it's Ghost Rider's book so he's going to look good, and his chains are probably mystical and not mundane, and Doc is shown surviving Rider punches and fire that would kill a normal person. But Doc's not shown with any kind of defenses or magic or shields. Doc can't divert the path of one chain. Doc can't transform one chain into a flock of doves to flap away harmlessly or anything interesting. The only time Rider seems to miss is for #3 next.

(3) Dr. Strange falls for the oldest, lamest trick in the book. Ye olde 'miss the guy to make something behind him fall on him'. We've seen this ten zillion times. Zero originality. Why does Doc call a chain hurl "valiant"? And what's with Doc's shit-eating grin? So out of character.

(4) Transporting Ghost Rider to consecrated ground does nothing. No advantage or limitation is shown. Just Dr. Strange incompetence again. Plus bringing the fight to a cemetary for people's headstones to get destroyed and poor graves to get defiled. S-M-R-T. How about teleporting to an abandoned ancient monastery in the middle of the desert somewhere. How about showing a Ghost Rider or his skull fire actually weakened by being in such a place.

(5) Dr. Strange wallows in self-pity. He takes out the bad guy, and then starts a moaning monologue about his mortal imperfection and temper. It made Neilalien vomit a little in his mouth. Why is Doc a sad sack?

(6) Ghost Rider basically defeats the Sorcerer Supreme. Damn, the Earth realm is under some great protection, eh? It makes no sense. If you're not going to show Doc hand Rider his ass, at least let it be the old comic book convention of two heroes both looking good and fighting to a standstill until the misunderstanding is resolved.

(7) Dr. Strange wastes his time fighting Ghost Rider while Lucifer is on Earth. Doc obviously knows Lucifer is involved. Lucifer is clearly the greater danger. Doc should be trying to recruit Rider to help him against Lucifer, instead of cease-and-desisting Rider. It makes no sense. The story should have went at least a little more like this: Doc tries to get Rider's help against Lucifer, Rider thinks Doc is Lucifer in disguise and attacks, they should have fought (with much more interesting Doc offense and defense) to a standstill, then Doc clears up the confusion with the Eye of Agamotto, and then they ally against Lucifer.

Doc NOT in Civil War #4 [which might be looking less disappointing after this issue's bad Frankenstein lurches, but Neilalien won't spoil] [unless Doc is Ski-Mask Man, but that's probably Punisher or Hawkeye]

Written by BRIAN K. VAUGHAN
Pencils & Cover by MARCOS MARTIN
As he searches every dimension of the Marvel Universe for a cure to save the life of his dying friend, Doctor Strange finally learns the shocking true identity of the shadowy villain who holds Wong's life in his hands.
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

For the true collector monkeys: Yandroth item in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A To Z #12

And more about Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange on the wires, on sale 11 October:

Lee, Bendis, Bagley and Davis Present Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange

In the second of a series of specials celebrating Stan Lee's 65th year of working at Marvel, "The Man" gets to meet the Master of the Mystic Arts: Dr. Strange. In Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange, Lee pens a tale with art by Alan Davis where Stan journeys to Greenwich Village to catch up with his old pal Dr. Strange.

Plus Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange features a back-up story by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley honoring Stan Lee. The creative team behind the fan-favorite Ultimate Spider-Man present a brand-new story paying homage to the life and career of the man who helped build the House of Ideas.

And if that wasn't enough, a reprinting of the Lee-scripted Marvel Premiere #3 with art by Barry Windsor-Smith featuring one of Doctor Strange's most memorable adventures.

Filled with more high-profile creators than you can shake a Wand of Watoomb at, Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange is fun-filled celebratory romp through the Marvel Universe for fans of Marvel, both yesterday and today.

GraphicSmash's RSS feed is working again, which means that Neilalien's GraphicSmash Pimpbotbox can return to the upper right of this site's homepage! It uses Feedroll to snag and HTMLize the first headline and link of GraphicSmash's feed, so when that feed changes daily, we get a new link to a different webcomic to check out. If you're like Neilalien, and (a) you like your comics with some escapist genre explodo instead of depressing autobioshlop, but (b) you're kinda over the Marvel/DC concept and their sinful distribution monopoly, but (c) you have no darn clue why a giant teardrop keeps appearing next to Pikachu's head, then you must check out GraphicSmash action webcomics.

Thank you Trigger, and soundman Noel, for 15 years of The Continental. A great punk club in New York City, ending its live-music run with a fun final show last night including Handsome Dick Manitoba and some remnants of The Dictators, Lenny Kaye, and C.J. Ramone. With CBGB closing next month too, an era is ending.
The Continental Drifts [Village Voice]
Downer at the Rock and Roll Club by Lenny Kaye [Village Voice]

It was a real thrill for Neilalien to meet and speak with Scott McCloud last week at Rocketship. Zot! was one of the first, if not the first, non-Marvel/DC/Harvey comic books Neilalien was ever exposed to oh those many years ago, and it proved to be a gateway drug to a whole new world of non- and less-corporate comics.

The great Michael Golden apparently made a rare convention appearance at this past weekend's Baltimore Comic Con [IGN] [Comic Book Resources]

[A]ccording to one art dealer, "Everybody in the business has ripped off something from 'Dr. Strange #55'."

First Look Thunderbolts #106 includes Wong [Mile High Comics] [thanks Sanctum!]
It also includes one of Neilalien's biggest pet peeves: When they show that any schmuck can do what Dr. Strange does (in this case, Speed Demon comprehending ancient magical scrolls).

Writer of the upcoming Dr. Strange: The Oath miniseries Brian K. Vaughan is hot right now getting big press bumps for his first original book-length graphic novel Pride of Baghdad, out next week, a story using animals from the Iraqi zoo to provide multiple viewpoints of wartime Iraq. Check out the Pride of Baghdad MySpace page for a ten-page preview and collection of related links and interviews. Here's a link to the New York Times Arts article that's better (no subscription req'd, won't linkrot so fast, whole article on one page, would've went with the printable version but the article's images are good- it's the least a blog can do for its readers). Via ICv2, which suggests that retailers may want to do a little more in-store marketing for this press-bountiful "high concept" creator with appeal to traditional and non-traditional comic readers alike. (Is it too Marvel Zombie to hope for some kind of spillover to The Oath?)

Diamond rejecting indie books with form letter checklist, and for "writing not up to comic industry standards" [Hope Larson, publisher of House of Sugar] [via The Engine w/good discussion]
Those terribly high comic industry standards will get you every time.

Two random humans have 99.9% identical DNA, humans/chimps 95%; Peter Parker and clone? 94.2% [Polite Dissent]
Now that's one bad clone. It must look like an octopus.

The Professor and the Madman: Meet David Milch, the genius behind HBO's Deadwood [Slate]

The DVDs also show that there is more than a glimmer of the bullshit artist at work. In the first episode's commentary track, Milch swears offhandedly throughout, pausing ironically for another disquisition on the show's own profanity. With his defense in full flight, Milch tosses off a reference first to H.L. Mencken on the nature of American language and then to Marvel Comics, before catching himself midlecture and conceding, "Well, that last thing, I guess comics have nothing to do with swearing."

BH: Is there any particular tale of the Doctor Strange that you were never able to tell?

FB: Not at the time I quit doing the series, but now and then I think of a story line that I came up with back in the 90's, I was thinking of it in terms of the millennium, like a "Doctor Strange 2000" where Clea leaves him and he starts drinking again, hits the bottom, and then has to save us from some new Dark Religious movement! Something like that...

Mark Millar: Comics move in 20 year cycles; boom coming, followed by Hollywood poaching the talent and bust [Newsarama]
Millar keeps moving the dates like an apocalyptic preacher; boom happening now but the potential buyers are downloading [Lying In The Gutters]
Comics not a blameless magically cyclical business, but go on upswings/downswings based on the interestingness of their contents [Permanent Damage]

ACTOR (A Commitment To Our Roots) is now HERO, The Hero Initiative [Hero Initiative]
Eh. A horizontal move; neither name thrills Neilalien. ACTOR says nothing about comics; now we have the zillionth silhouette of a muscular man with hands on hips to represent all comics. But a rose is still a rose. As long as they're helping our wonderful heritage of classic (and classicly screwed-over) comics creators with more than their funeral costs after they're dead.

Q: Do you have any specific career goals at this point? You have spoken before about the necessity of work-for-hire; do you see your work on books like Uncanny X-Men or Captain America as a stepping stone toward other goals, or are they the goals?

A: The goal is basically to make a decent living as a professional writer. Work-for-hire writing can be both creatively fulfilling and financially rewarding, whether people want to believe that or not. Even if I could make my living doing only stuff I completely owned, I'd probably still do some work-for-hire books, just for the fun of it, and to use different writing muscles. But the ultimate goal, yeah, is to be able to do creator-owned work that succeeds, which means it sells enough to keep doing it.

Q: You once said that if you had the power, you'd cut half of Marvel and DC's superhero titles and diversify them with other types of books. What would you like to see getting more play on the shelves right now?

A: Just anything of a different genre that's actually good. My point with that was that the shelves are so crowded now that even a really great genre comic, like a crime or sci-fi comic, has trouble even making it onto them. And when Marvel or DC try to expand with different genres, they never think about clearing a path for the new work. In the old days, they had the newsstands, and they could only put out a flat number of comics a month, so if they wanted to do a western, they had to cancel something else to make room for it. But I think if half the superhero books (the ones I or my friends don't write, obviously) suddenly disappeared, and Marvel and DC started putting out different genres than superheroes, they'd have a better shot with retailers, because there'd be room on the shelves. I mean, sure, maybe they'd still flop, but at least the retailers would be more inclined to give them a chance. The way it is now, any new thing is always in addition to everything else, so why would a retailer try something new if he's already crowded with stuff he can barely afford? So, I'd just like to have more good horror, crime, western, humor, sci-fi... all sorts of pulp genre comics, and not so many superhero genre books. I'm not suggesting getting rid of superheroes, or saying they suck, or that I don't enjoy writing them, because I clearly do, but I wouldn't cry if suddenly there were only a hundred a month instead of two hundred. Especially if that was replaced with high-quality genre stuff with more diversity. And that's not even about being an art snob, I just want some more pulp. Hell, I'm too optimistic, though. If Marvel and DC gave up that much shelf-space all at once, all those stores would just fill up on manga, which is both highly successful, and filled with every genre imaginable.

Doctor Strange is a fictional character who appears in, and is wholly owned by, Marvel Comics.
This site is not official nor affiliated with Marvel Comics.
This site is for academic and personal use.
Images of Doctor Strange and other characters are owned by their respective owners, and are used via fair use out of love without permission.
This site has no intention of diluting, risking or exploiting anyone's ownership or the money-making ability of their own properties, trademarks, and copyrights.
It is this site's sincere hope that the owners, especially Marvel Comics, are rational people who "get" the internet and fandom,
and can perceive this site as a free generator of positive promotion and interest, even when this site might be critical of how they are using their properties, or place their properties in humorous, satiric, parodic or ironic situations.